


Defending Honor

by Rose_of_Pollux



Series: Inktober for Writers 2017 [16]
Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 08:18:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12384411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rose_of_Pollux/pseuds/Rose_of_Pollux
Summary: In which Napoleon realizes that there’s more on Illya’s mind than meets the eye.





	Defending Honor

**Author's Note:**

> For Prompt 16 of Inktober for Writers: Defiance

Napoleon gently placed a medicinal paste on the lilac-colored bruise on Illya’s face. Illya didn’t even flinch; in fact, he looked pleased with himself.

“I’m supposed to be the one who thinks with my heart,” Napoleon sighed. “You’re supposed to be the one who uses his head.”

“I do not regret it,” Illya said, defiantly. “I have told you before, Napoleon, there are very few things in this miserable world that I believe in. So I will defend those things should the need arise.”

“…I wouldn’t have called this something that needed to happen,” Napoleon sighed. “I mean, look at you—this bruise is going to be there for a while.”

“I did not lay a punch; I cannot be blamed. I have witnesses.”

“Yeah, witnesses who saw that creep gift you that bruise,” Napoleon said. “Why did you call him… _that_?”

“He called you a brainless attack dog and said that all you needed to switch loyalties was a better piece of meat.”

Napoleon groaned.

“Was that all…!?”

“I had to defend your honor, so I told him exactly what he was. …Just my rotten luck that he understood Russian. Who knew that such an ignorant buffoon would have educated himself to learn another language?”

“Illya, my loyalty has been questioned ever since Strothers and Beldon pulled that stunt over the Summit Five.”

“It should not have happened,” Illya said, darkly. “…I should not have allowed it to happen.”

And, suddenly, everything made sense.

“…You blame yourself for not being able to protect me from Strothers’s interrogation,” Napoleon realized.

“I should have called Mr. Waverly—I should have insisted that Strothers not be allowed to do that to you,” Illya said, indirectly answering Napoleon’s question. “I should have put a stop to it the moment I heard your first shout of pain.”

Napoleon now drew an arm around Illya. It all made sense now; Illya’s defiant attitude with that loud-mouthed visitor, when he normally would have held his tongue and cursed the man privately, was him trying to make amends for something that was most definitely not his fault.

“Illya,” he said, softly. “What happened in Berlin is not your fault. You do know that, don’t you?”

“Of course I know that,” he said. “But can you blame me for feeling as I do, Napoleon? If I had been the one accused of being a traitor and interrogated… no, _tortured_ … Would you have been able to feel guiltless over allowing it to happen?”

“No,” Napoleon admitted. “I wouldn’t. But there wasn’t much you could have done, Illya. If you’d made too much of a fuss, Strothers would have accused you of being my accomplice. Then you would have been locked up with me, unable to help me escape and help me stop Beldon like we did.” He gave him a wan smile. “Think you can live with that?”

Illya returned the faint smile.

“I think I can,” he agreed.

Napoleon now resumed treating Illya’s bruise, the both of them feeling better about the whole affair.


End file.
